Jim Bridenstine

The successful return of human orbital spaceflight to the United States generated bipartisan praise, but it’s unclear if that support will translate into funding required to enable other NASA human spaceflight ambitions.

President Donald Trump used a speech after the successful SpaceX Crew Dragon launch May 30 to tout his administration’s accomplishments in space, some of which predate his time in office, rather than announce any new initiatives.

On the eve of the first crewed orbital flight from the United States in nearly nine years, both the current NASA administrator and his predecessor agreed that credit for the ultimate success of the commercial crew program should be shared.

While both the president and vice president plan to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch, there will be far fewer people attending the first American human orbital spaceflight in nearly a decade than once expected.

NASA is finalizing a plan to gradually reopen its field centers once the peak of the coronavirus pandemic passes, but agency leadership said that would be a slow process that would vary based on the conditions at each center.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wants the space agency to play a bigger role in national strategy, including requiring countries interested in participating in the Artemis program to accept “norms of behavior” for safe space operations.

While NASA’s decision to award lunar lander development contracts to three companies won praise from a Senate committee, the leaders of the House Science Committee said they remained concerned about NASA’s approach to returning humans to the moon.

COVID-19 has transformed NASA like no other event in the agency’s six-decade history, dispersing its workforce and forcing it to make tough decisions about which projects to continue and which to put on hold.

In this excerpt from a “fireside chat” at the third annual SpaceNews Awards for Excellence & Innovation Dec. 10, Doug Loverro discusses why he took on this new challenge and Jim Bridenstine explains why he believes Loverro is the right person for the job.

As the fiscal year 2020 appropriations process approaches its endgame, NASA leadership says it will find ways to keep efforts to return humans to the moon by 2024 on track even if the agency doesn’t get all the funding it’s requested.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine used a Dec. 5 speech on Capitol Hill to implore Congress to finish a fiscal year 2020 appropriations bill for NASA as soon as possible to give the agency funding to proceed on a lunar lander program.

The new head of NASA’s human spaceflight programs affirmed his support for the Space Launch System Dec. 3, saying the long-delayed heavy-lift rocket is “absolutely mandatory” for returning humans to the moon.